This is an AccessArt exercise designed to make you think about the potential of the pencil as a tool to create a whole repertoire of marks and lines with different weights, frequencies, depths and lengths.

Try this exercise with a variety pencils from soft (5B-9B) to hard (in the F and H range).

Top tips for making beautiful lines:

Think about the lines you are making and be ‘mindful,’ or in the ‘here and now’.

Think about the paper as a ‘place’ that your pencil is exploring. You are taking the pencil on a journey on and through that space.

Enjoy exploring ‘frequency’ and ‘tempo’ of making pencil marks by changing the speed, pressure and energy with which you work.

See what happens if you apply and release pressure through the pencil and try to unlearn how to hold a pencil.

Vertical pencil movements and positions:

Vertical: Try holding your pencil lightly from its top and dangling it over the paper and create gentle marks across the page

Horizontal: And use the tip of the pencil as though it is an extension of your own finger. Try digging it into the paper to punctuate a stop and then ease the pressure and drag it again across the paper

We believe everyone has the right to be creative and by working together and sharing ideas we can enable everyone to reach their creative potential.

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Using Sketchbooks, Drawing and Reflective Tools in the 20th Century Gallery at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Drawing can be a powerful route into exploring artworks.
This session was about using drawing as a tool to ‘look’ and gather information – not about creating finished pieces but building drawings, rich with visual clues and reminders for later.
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This resource provides a comprehensive list of appropriate drawing materials for primary and secondary school, together with links to suggested drawing activities.
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Drawing Insects with an H Pencil

Teenagers from AccessArt’s Experimental Drawing Class, experimented with using a hard ‘H’ pencil to draw insects.
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What We Are Working On!

Coming Soon: Inspire 2020INSPIRE 2020 (10 December 2019 – 22 March 2020) will be the first exhibition of work made by primary school children in the Octagon Gallery atThe Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in collaboration with AccessArt.